Marty's Request
by McCrazy for McDreamy
Summary: What if Marty had brought Payson with him to Denver Elite? Post Pilot Season 1.


**Marty's Request**

**This is just a plot bunny that has been plaguing my mind, if you like it leave a review and I'll write more.**

Lauren signed into her Facebook account. She frowned; she only had two notifications and one friend request. Surely she was more popular than that? She clicked the little globe at the top of the page. She'd been tagged in Kaylie's album and Kaylie, Nicky and Carter had commented on her status. She navigated to that. Her status read: How dare she just walk in like she owns the place. Carter wanted to know what was going on, Nicky wanted her to stop whining and Kaylie was trying to placate her. She huffed her dad had better sort this out fast; it wasn't fair that Emily was allowed to compete to be chosen for Nationals! It didn't matter anyway, she, Payson and Kaylie would be going 1, 2, 3 like always, Kmetko who trained at the Y was not going to stop that.

Lauren didn't bother to reply to the comments on her status and flicked back to her news feed. She almost growled when she read the post:

Payson Keeler and Kaylie Cruz are now friends with Emily Kmetko.

Like ∙ Comment

Kaylie Cruz likes this.

This bitch thought she could just steal her friends, well she would show her tomorrow.

XxX

Lauren was shocked, Kmetko had beaten her. That evil girl had just shown up the day before and now she was trying to steal her spot. She was supposed to be part of the Rock's top flight, not Emily Kmetko, the charity chase. Kmetko had beaten her and Lauren had been so desperate she'd tried to rat out Kaylie for having a relationship with Carter. She felt bad about that but it was all that stupid Emily Kmetko's fault! Who the hell did that girl think she was? Walking into _her _gym and stealing _her_ place. Ugh, the stupid evil idiot just made her so angry!

Irritated, Lauren threw her gym bag down on the floor, her daddy better sort this out and fast!

XxX

Marty looked down at the pictures. This was bad. How the hell had Steve gotten these? He didn't care how amazing his private detective was, this was insane. Nothing in life was private anymore. What he had done with Ronnie was wrong and he understood that, he had never imagined that it would all come down to this. He knew Steve Tanner was possibly the most manipulative man on earth but still he never could have fathomed that this was how it would all come out.

"The Denver club are very interested in your coaching services and you'll be taking Lauren."

This would hurt so many people, not least himself. Ronnie's marriage would never survive this and Kaylie would never work with him. Not to mention, his athletes would never look at him the same way. It seemed like acquiescing to Steve's demands was the only way to handle this catastrophe.

"I have one condition Tanner; I'm bringing Payson Keeler with me."

"The whole point of this was that Lauren would get to be number one and would get the attention she deserved."

"I made Kim and Mark a promise when I convinced them to come all the way out here from Minnesota. I told them I would get Payson to the Olympics and I'll get Lauren there too Steve, but I am not going back on my promise."

Steve nodded; he could understand where Marty was coming from. "Alright, it'll be good for Lauren to have a friend if you can get the Keelers to agree to it."

"Also Steve, I want the hard copies of these photos I won't have you blackmailing me like this again." Grudgingly Steve slammed the contents of the the brown envelope down on the table.

"Do you expect me to believe you don't have copies?" Marty asked raising his eyebrow left and pursing his lips, waiting for Steve Tanner's response.

"You'll have everything by the end of the week Marty."

"One more thing Steve, don't go announcing this move to anyone until I talk to Kim and Payson." Steve nodded before leaving the room. Marty sighed and looked down at the pictures once again, he'd really screwed up!

XxX

Payson wondered why the hell Marty had dragged her and her mom in here so late. The competition was over, she'd won so what was the issue? Kim didn't know what was going on either. She was just as much in the dark as Payson was as to the meaning behind their summons.

Payson found the door of the office open and just as she was about to knock Marty spoke. "Come on in Payson." Payson obeyed Marty's order and walked into the small office, followed by her mother.

Marty stood behind his desk. Payson was surprised that Marty's desk was so tidy, being the coach of one of the top gymnastics training centres in the country meant that he was usually inundated with paperwork. As a matter of fact, the office seemed surprisingly bare; Payson noted two cardboard boxes on the floor next to his desk. Payson began to panic, what the hell was going on?

Kim asked the question that Payson had been asking mentally. "Why did you call us in here Marty? Is something wrong?"

Marty shifted uncomfortably and sighed, before motioning to Payson and Kim to sit down on the two vacant seats in front of his desk. He then sat down in his own chair, taking one final big breath before he began. "Okay, I wanted to let you know that I've been offered the position of head coach at Denver Elite and I'm taking it. I don't want to get into the ins and outs of why. All I'll say is that, I've been forced into a very uncomfortable position and I have no choice but to make the move."

Payson was more than shocked, she was outraged. She couldn't believe that Marty would convince her family to move out here and then just abandon them like this. "I can't believe this!" She shouted, standing up. "You promised me you'd get me to the Olympics Marty. You made my family move out here fromMinnesota so I could train at the Rock. Why did you bother? So right before the last Nationals I'll ever compete in you could abandon me!" Payson could feel the traitorous tears streaming down her face, she swallowed and tried to command her body to stop but to no avail. "You promised Marty," she whispered before darting out the door.

"Payson wait…" Marty called after her but she didn't listen. He made a move to follow her, when Kim stopped him insisting he would be the last person Payson wanted to see right now.

"But Kim I was going to ask her to come with me."

"I'll try to convince her to calm down and comeback so we can finish this meeting but first give me some time to calm my daughter down.

XxX

Later that evening Kim and Mark sat at home watching television. Neither of them was really concentrating, they were both thinking about Payson's options and what was best for her. However, they were both refusing to discuss the elephant in the room, hoping that if they didn't mention it all their problems would be sorted out and Marty would stay as head coach at the Rock. Payson was having a bath and Becca was already in bed. "Mark," Kim said, surrendering and being the first to acknowledge the problem they were facing, "what are we going to do?"

"Well we could always wait and see how things work out at the Rock, you know how much Payson hates change."

"As much as she hates change Mark, Nationals are coming up; she's not going to want to train with no coach. It could take ages for them to find a new coach and almost impossible for them to find someone of Marty's standard. Helen from Texas still calls me regularly, they want Payson."

"But Texas Kim? I know it's the best club in the country but think of the mess when we moved here, it took us a month to find a house and Becca was broken hearted leaving all her friends. And surely all that upheaval and uncertainty would only harm Payson in the run up to Nationals."

"You're right Mark… It's just I want what's right for Payson."

"Don't you think that maybe I should be involved in a conversation about _my_ future?" A voice asked from behind them. Mark and Kim turned around to see their eldest daughter in a fluffy blue dressing gown and her long, wet hair coiled up beneath a towel.

"We weren't making any decisions without you, sweetie," Kim assured her, "we were just discussing the options."

"I want to go to Denver Elite with Marty, mom. He's my coach."

"Payson, this is a big move, it's going to affect all of us," Mark protested.

"Look dad, Denver is an hour's drive away, we don't need to move or anything, I'll just take a bus. I need a coach to bring me to Nationals. This is going to be my last ever National Championships, I'm in the best shape I've been in a long time. I'm ready to beat Kelly Parker."

Mark and Kim shared a look, Payson was right. They knew their daughter was stubborn and it was almost impossible to change her mind but in this case, they agreed with her. "Alright," Kim said, "you can go to Denver, I'll call Marty now and organise everything. Hopefully, you can start there tomorrow."

"Thanks mom," Payson squealed, rushing to hug her parents. "What about Becca, though?"

"I'll talk to Becca in the morning," Kim reassured her. "She can move too, if she wants but if she wants to stay at the Rock we'll work around it."

"Thanks to both of you, I really do appreciate the sacrifices you make for me. I know how hard the move was for you guys."

"We know you appreciate it," Mark replied, "And we also hope you know we'd do anything for you or Becca." Payson cracked a smile.

"Go and dry your hair, Pay and get to bed. We have an extra hour's commute in the morning," Kim said sternly but with a smile on her face. Payson did as she asked but only after giving each of her parents another hug.

Upon arriving in her room, Payson found a text from Lauren, asking whether or not she was going to Denver too. Payson frowned, Lauren was moving to Denver too? So Marty was leaving Kaylie and Emily behind. Payson felt uncomfortable but she felt obligated to reply with a yes. She'd see Lauren tomorrow and it'd be awkward if she just completely ignored her text message.

After drying her hair, Payson jumped into bed, once her head hit the pillow she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning when she got up, she was so excited that she didn't bother to check her phone or Twitter. She also forgot to text Kaylie. Had she checked her Twitter she would've seen a tweet from Lauren Tanner. **(there should be an at symbol here but fanfiction won't allow it)**_Payson_Keeler we're going to take Denver Elite by storm… they won't know what hit them. _Although Payson didn't see Lauren's tweet, the majority of her 3.1 thousand followers did. One of said followers happened to be Kaylie Cruz who was shocked, upset and furious all at once. These girls were supposed to be her friends so she did the first thing she could think of, she called Carter.

**Thoughts anyone?**

**As I said above, leave a review if you'd like to see more.**

**Thanks for your time,**

**Katie x**


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